Garden bloggers' bloom day July 2014

My god, where has the year gone? Did you know it's July? Despite the fact that I celebrated the 4th of said month with fireworks and all that, and the Fling came and went, I was sort of floored to realize that it's not June anymore. And July is that wonderful time of year when I stand in the garden, swearing at myself for not better documenting the 900 kinds of lilies I planted in the spring. And why did I plant one that will get eight feet tall smack dab in the front of the bed?

Everything is blooming right on schedule except for my Eucomis 'Sparkling Burgandy,' which is shy this year. We're all lilies and grasses right now, which is just fine by me.

Silk Road is wonderfully scented. One stem decided to fall over so I just had to cut it and bring it inside. You can smell it all the way in the back bedrooms from the dining room. It's worth the allergy flair-up.

Silk Road

'Alchemy'  has a much less perfumey scent and is citrusy. It's wonderful.

'Conca d'Or' is enormous!

'Scheherazade'

'Miss Libby' looking a little past her prime.

Good old 'Stargazer'

Some other newer additions for the garden this year:

Clematis Jackmanii

Plume poppy (Macleaya cordata) has a dusty pink bloom I normally wouldn't like.

Helenium 'Mardi Gras'

Eryngium giganteum 'Miss Willmott's Ghost'

Eucomis reichenbachii

Liatris spicata 'Kobold'

Coreopsis 'Limerock Ruby' improbably survived the winter.

Tithonia rotundifolia

Chionochloa rubra is blooming for the first time!

A very happy (late) bloomday to you! Thank you, as always, for hosting Carol!

The winner of the ANLD tour tickets!

Random.org was used to pull a winner for the ANLD tickets and congrats go to Matthew of The Lents Farmer (who entered on my Facebook page)! I'll contact you about picking them up.

Thank you to those of you who entered--I've never done a giveaway because I was worried that no one would enter. You've saved me some anxiety and I appreciate it!

Want to attend the 2014 ANLD Tour?

I had the good fortune to attend a sneak peek of this year's Association of Northwest Landscaper Designers' (ANLD) Tour, which will take place next Saturday, June 28th. Six gardens were showcased, with designers flexing their muscles to combat challenges like tiny urban plots, bad drainage, and the need for a beautiful garden that could accommodate a tractor driving through it (!).

The Best garden

The Malone garden

The Malone garden

There was plenty of great hardscaping to ogle and a hefty dose of plant porn, especially in the Ernst and Williams gardens.

The Ernst garden, which will be featured in this year's Garden Bloggers' Fling

Podophyllum 'Red Panda'? in the Ernst garden

Aloe suprafoliata in the Moore garden

I came away with a lot of ideas I'd like to steal and a profound respect for the association. The passion and support those members in the ANLD show for each others' work in incredible. All proceeds from the tour benefit the ANLD scholarship fund. Tickets for the tour are available at Portland Nursery, Cornell Farms, Dennis' Seven Dees, Garden Fever!, and Xera Plants. If that's not tempting enough, I'm giving away two tickets for the tour. Just head over to Facebook and like ANLD, then leave a comment here saying, "Count me in" or something to that effect. I'll announce the winner on Thursday morning!

Garden bloggers' bloom day June 2014

I was reading some snarky garden article the other day about the overuse of salvia by landscape designers and I looked out into my yard in horror . . . you guys, I have SO much salvia. In my defense, I was sent 21 of them by High Country Gardens in the weirdest order mix-up ever, but I've still got a lot that are my doing.

Salvia sylvestris 'Blue Hill'

I love them and the bees love them. And they smell so good and sweaty. 'Caradonna' and 'May Night' are still going and will go on all summer.

Salvia 'Indigo Spires' is just getting going

But the most exciting thing right now is that my Yucca recurvifolia bloomed! Hot damn.

Lilium martagon 'Arabian Night'

Helenium 'Mardi Gras'

Eremurus 'Lemon Meringue' are just finishing up

Verbascum epixanthium

Fuschia magellanica 'Hawkshead'

Scabiosa caucasica 'Fama Blue'

Asclepias speciosa

Penstemon x 'Enor'

Agastache aurantica 'Navajo Sunset'

Callicarpa bodinieri 'Profusion'

Papaver 'Drama Queen'

Papaver hybridium 'Lauren's Grape'

Verbena boariensis

Clarkia amoena 'Aurora'

Agrostemma githago

This summer has really snuck up on me . . . I feel like I'll be putting the garden to bed for winter if I don't stop and enjoy things. Happy bloom day and thank you to our host Carol!

Getting that privacy back

I think in my version of hell I'd be running a daycare out of my house and those commercials for Video Only ("You'll be sooooooorry!") would be playing on a loop overhead. I don't dislike children as much as I can't handle disruption in my home, and a bunch of kids are more destructive than bears. 

The house next door is finally on the market, which means I can start worrying about what our new neighbors will be like instead of worrying about garden damage and lead exposure.

This is our new solution to the flippers next door clearing every shrub from their property, giving them a clear view into our backyard. I'm not totally in love with it right now because it's a gigantic galvanized tub, right as walk into the yard, but I think as the grasses grow in I'll like it better.

Before:

And now:

Right now the area in front of the tank looks ridiculous.

Eryngium planum 'Blue Hobbit' and Sedum rupestre 'Lemon Ball'

Little blibs and blobs that will someday fill in and not look so silly.

There was a whole incident with the flippers hiring one of the kids from down the street to power wash the house, which deposited paint chips all over . . . then the wind picked up and blew them all into my yard. They cleaned them up but informed me they never did a lead test. They were totally unconcerned about it and one of their subcontractors informed me, "It's naturally occurring in the human body and it's not that harmful." Both of those things are false, especially for kids. Did I mention they had the eight year old from down the street picking paint chips out of my mulch? So irresponsible.

It's been stressful and I will be happy to never see them again. And hopefully I won't see the new owners . . . from the backyard, at least. Keep your fingers crossed that they want to plant a hedgerow between our houses. And that they're bakers or cheesemongers and that they don't have a garage band.

Competing for natives

Before I bought my house I knew I wanted a garden; in fact I kept announcing to people, "I need a big yard because I'm a gardener." I had but one season of vegetable gardening under my belt but I just knew I was destined for great plant lust.

I'd never landscape gardened before so I checked out every single gardening book from the library where I worked and kept them for the better part of a year. If the east county was lacking in new gardens that year, you can blame me. I took every single one.

Backyard in 2010

Before I replaced the fence and had the slab removed

My favorite to read was the Encyclopedia of Northwest Native Plants for Gardens and Landscapes. The pictures are beautiful and plentiful and the descriptions are thorough. I also signed up for the Backyard Habitat program, so I could buy native plants on the cheap. It was a good way to get my garden started at a time when I had no money. At one point I thought I'd have a 100% native garden but then I discovered that other plants exist. Really great plants that I like a lot!

I like you too, Oregon iris. You can stay.

I got certified as "backyard habitat" at the silver level in 2011, which awarded me a metal sign, continued participation in plant sales, and bragging rights. It also nourished the part of me that enjoys meeting arbitrary goals.

Did you know that Geum triflorum is native to the PNW? I bought it
because it was pretty.

The volunteer they sent to evaluate my yard in 2011 didn't have the broadest plant knowledge and I had to bicker over some plants with her. She was also hellbent on me removing my bamboo. I exacted my revenge my planting a lot more of it in subsequent years.

Dichelostemma ida-maia is another plant that I bought without realizing it was native.

I had to get recertified this year and I didn't want any quibbling so I came armed with spreadsheets and a diagram. I printed the map Greg created of our yard and labeled where all the natives lived. I cataloged every native in our garden and I was shocked to discover that we had 59 unique species. I ran out and bought Thalictrum occidentale so I could round it out to 60, because . . . math? even numbers? I don't know.

Meadow rue (Thalictrum occidentale)

The volunteer who judged my garden this time was much friendlier and didn't give my bamboo the side-eye. He also informed me that I had easily qualified for gold certification and was this close to platinum, which made me crazy. You just gave me a new arbitrary goal and informed me I'd failed!

Clarkia amoena, one of our prettiest native annuals

Maybe platinum is in my future or maybe I won't care anymore. I think this is a great program, even if I have a few quibbles with it. The plants I've purchased through them have been terribly root-bound and they don't perform as well as plants I've bought from nurseries, though they certainly cost a lot less. It's been a couple of years since I bought from them, so I hope they're improving. I also wish there was room in the program for certain non-natives.

Hummingbird feeding from non-native Mahonia x media 'Arthur Menzies' on January 7th.

My mahonia hybrids provide food for hummingbirds and insects in December and January, when nothing else is blooming. I think year-round nectar trumps native purity in certain cases.

My last complaint, because I am nothing if not a complainer: don't take pictures of people with a wide-angle lens. It's so unflattering.

Do you have native plants in your garden? What's your favorite? The pointlessly competitive part of me thinks I should incorporate more, so I can get to 75 species. Maybe then they'll give me a wristwatch or a commemorative clock.